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Thursday, August 4, 2011

Wooden Alphabet Disks

If you read my most recent Tot School post, you know that I am preparing to start working on the alphabet with Super Tot. I wanted to get some letter tiles, but couldn't find any that I liked. I'm growing less and less fond of plastic, but couldn't find an affordable "natural" alternative that I liked. I had accepted the fact that I was going to be stuck getting these:

When Princess and I went to purchase them, she asked me why I don't just make some out of wooden disks. I can't believe I hadn't thought of that before!! We already had most of the supplies, so this was perfect!

I didn't have enough wooden disks on hand to make a complete Uppercase & Lowercase set, so I headed to the craft store. I love these particular disks because they have rounded edges. They are $2.99 for a package of 22 disks.

I also found a cute round box to store the letters in. It was in the unfinished wood section at the craft store for $3.49! The only other supplies I used were alphabet stamps and ink. I have acrylic stamps at home and generally prefer those to rubber stamps, but you could use either. You could even paint or write the letters on the tiles, if you don't have stamps.

Because letters will be a new concept for Super Tot, I wanted to make the difference between uppercase and lowercase very obvious. I chose to use black ink for the uppercase letters and red ink for the lowercase ones. I love how they turned out!

Once Super Tot is a little older, I plan to change out the vowels with a different color and to make additional letters to use these as a Moveable Alphabet. At that time I will find a different storage solution that will separate each letter, but I love the box for now!

I cannot wait to start using these, and Super Tot is very excited about them, too! I am sure you will see many posts with various examples of how they will be used in our school for many years to come!

Additionally, you could glue magnets on the backs and use them in place of those horrible plastic letter magnets that I personally dislike so much! I just might have to make a set of the magnets to replace our plastic ones! These would also make a great gift for anyone with a toddler or preschooler!

Great idea and directions! How sweet that your daughter was the inspiration for your wooden alphabet letters! And it's wonderful that if you just change the vowels to blue, you'll have an instant Montessori movable alphabet! Thanks for linking up with Montessori Monday! I featured your post at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/LivingMontessoriNow

I love this idea! We made an alphabet on stones and attached magnets on the back. I would love to make a wooden one like yours. Did a quick search, but unfortunately where we live (Germany) they do not sell such disks. Will have to search some more. Meanwhile I am saving this project on my to do list. Thank u for sharing

HI! I'm Cat and I just found your blog! I love it and already found some ideas i want to borrow, lol.My tot is about to have a baby school graduation now (although he's older than yours was) and start a new Mommy School year. This blog is adorable and I can't wait to try some of your ideas!! Hope you don't mind me featuring them on my blog!

I LOVE this idea- and we are going to make these ASAP. Did I mention that I LOVE this idea sooooo much that we are going to feature you on The Sunday Showcase this week?? Come and grab your button mama you deserve it!http://www.classifiedmom.com/search/label/The%20Sunday%20Showcase

Oooo you may have just answered my problem!! I love using the Scrabble pieces for Mustang's spelling words, but hate that they are all uppercase. I'm pretty sure they make little wooden squares at Hob Lob too! Oh thank you!!!

Hey Rebecca you seemed to have done an awesome job with the letters I think this is a more innovative than using plastic magnets, they look out of date and redundant. Yes I agree with you it can be an ideal gift for mothers having toddlers and preschoolers at home.